ARLINGTON, Va. — Earth Treks Crystal City prides itself as a rock climbing outlet for people living in a metropolitan area and the business in northern Virginia hopes its roots in rock climbing can ...

When a Mars rover accidentally crushed a small rock and exposed a flash of vivid yellow inside, it turned a routine drive ...

Diamonds may be the hardest of gemstones, but it’s zircons that last forever. So durable are these birthstones of December that they represent Earth’s oldest known material: Some zircons from ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To put it mildly, this is one gem of a gem. Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western ...

The oldest known Earth stuff that remains on the surface of our planet is a mineral that’s been called the “Time Lord” because it’s so incredibly good at keeping geologic time. The mineral is zircon, ...

MADISON – Reading the telltale chemical signature of a mineral sample determined to be the world’s oldest known terrestrial material, scientists have reconstructed a portrait that suggests the early ...

It may be a cool, comfortable paradise nowadays, but Earth had a pretty hotheaded youth – some scientists speculate that for a while the surface was one big ocean of magma. Now, a team of researchers ...

While quartz has long been used in timepieces, new models by Chanel and Van Cleef & Arpels show it having a moment. By Joshua Hendren Decorative gems have adorned watches for centuries. But, beyond ...